As a teenager in the 1960s, Debbie Naylor wanted to fly even though it wasn't a conventional career option for women back then.

When she graduated from Texas Tech University in 1969, she talked to both the Navy and the Air Force about her dreams of flying.

"But they weren't interested in girl pilots," she said.

So Naylor turned to Delta Airlines and became a flight attendant. Nearly 50 years later, the longtime Pensacola Beach resident and National Naval Aviation Museum volunteer is still flying with Delta.

Naylor, 69, serves passengers three times a month on Delta's Atlanta to Johannesburg route. The 17-hour route to South Africa is the company's longest nonstop flight from its Atlanta headquarters.

She doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon.

"Of course I will make to 50 years with Delta and then some. If you are doing something you enjoy doing, it isn't work," said Naylor, who likes to hear the stories of big-game hunters and other adventurers who are regulars on her route.

Longtime Delta Airlines flight attendant and National Naval Aviation Museum volunteer Debbie Naylor talks being amused by this little boy who told her that seeing the Blue Angels perform was on his bucket list. Naylor made sure that he had a front row view on the flight line. February 28, 2018. Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com

Delta Airlines flight attendant Debbie Naylor, top right, poses with her idol Amelia Earhart's youngest sister, lower left, during a flight to Hawaii in 1985. Naylor still works for Delta and volunteers at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Naylor.) Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com

"The planes were flying ashtrays back then because everyone smoked," she said.

The airline had a strict weight limit for the flight attendants and other guidelines for their appearance.

"I was walking up and down in the aisles in four-inch heels," she said. "And no one was afraid to say anything back then. You heard all sorts of stuff. If you didn't like it, you could walk away."

During her decades at Delta, Naylor has flown on most every route. She spent 17 years living in Honolulu and serving flights to and from Hawaii.

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Dressed as her idol Amelia Earhart, Debbie Naylor, longtime Delta Airlines flight attendant and museum volunteer, poses with a young lady dressed as Rosie the Riveter at National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Naylor.)(Photo: Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com)

She wasn't flying on Sept. 11, 2001, but many of her friends were.

"Everything about flying changed after that day. People used to look forward to flying, but 9-11 took the fun out of flying," she said.

Naylor did her most meaningful service with Delta after 9-11, serving on commercial planes that became part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet and shuttled troops to the Middle East.

She and other crew members tried to make the flights pleasant for the troops.

"When we landed, we told them they could take pretty much anything with them that wasn't nailed down. We gave them all the food we had on the plane, anything they might want," said Naylor, who wrote to some of the soldiers during their deployments.

She has had other experiences on long flights that weren't so rewarding.

The sleep medication Ambien and alcohol can cause some really weird reactions.

"I've seen people running down the aisles taking their clothes off and then wrapping themselves up in the curtains," she said.

Planes have gotten more crowded and the passengers have gotten bigger through the years, causing disputes over the amount of room in the seats.

And then there are the medical emergencies.

"About once a month there is something that happens on a long flight, but we train for that. We know what to do," she said.

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Longtime Delta Airlines flight attendant and National Naval Aviation Museum volunteer Debbie Naylor talks being amused by this little boy who told her that seeing the Blue Angels perform was on his bucket list. Naylor made sure that he had a front row view on the flight line. February 28, 2018.(Photo: Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com)

Naylor has a trick for parents with crying infants and toddlers: she encourages the parents to take the babies to the bathroom and let them see themselves in the mirror. Looking at themselves changes the baby's focus and often stops the crying.

"It really does work," she said.

The kids are Naylor's favorite part of working the museum flight line during the Blue Angels practices. One 3-year-old boy told her last year that watching the team fly "was on his bucket list." She loved the line and has a photo of the child with one of the Marines who was working the flight line that day.

Naylor also enjoys dressing up for Halloween. During trick-or-treat at the museum, she is always her idol, Amelia Earhart.

Although museum volunteers do not have regular interactions with the busy Blue Angels pilots, Naylor said they do develop a connection with the pilots over time. The volunteers, who watch every practice, are also knowledgeable critics of the pilots.

"We can absolutely see how they get better and better with each practice," she said. "During the first flights of the season, they are more cautious. At the end, they are really tight. They are flying close to each other."

She is looking forward to watching the team's new solo pilot, Lt. Brandon Hempler, when the Blue Angels return from winter training in El Centro, California, later this month.

"I love that sneak pass. I like when they fly low and fast," she said.

Naylor knows so much about Blue Angels flying that she surprised an experienced Delta pilot who didn't believe her when she explained the team flies without the traditional G-suits worn by most fighter jet pilots. The man didn't think that was true.

"He never apologized and told me I was right," she laughed.

Naylor's uncle was an Army Air Corps pilot who flew a B-17 over Normandy on D-Day in World War II. Her father fought on the ground with the Army during the Battle of the Bulge.

Her appreciation for their service and for military history in general runs deep. She has numerous photographs of herself with well-known pilots who have visited the museum through years.

But Naylor never seriously took up flying herself. She took lessons briefly when she was in Hawaii and flew a small plane with the help of an instructor.

"I realized when we took off that I'm a better copilot. I was too busy looking out the windows," she said.

Melissa Nelson Gabriel can be reached at mnelsongab@pnj.com or 850-426-1431.